P'riat

Appearance: Perhaps P'riat had been handsome, once. If he ever was, it was a long time ago. Oh, he's healthy enough -- wiry and stronger than he looks -- and he has all of his black hair. He keeps that at a manageable length, brushed back from his face, but it gets a little unruly. And he'd honestly probably be doing people a favor if he combed it over his face. He looks at least half again his age, and his face looks ravaged from acne in his youth. That was before the thread-scorching he received during the first Fall of the pass, that burned the right side of his face and warped the muscles. His right eye sags a little, and the eyelid is heavy over his watery blue eye, but it doesn't effect his vision that he's ever admitted to. He was lucky that his helmet and flight goggles took the worst of the thread, or he wouldn't have a right eye to speak of.

Personality: It all depends on the level of trust that P'riat has with you, and even then, you're probably never going to know the real him. It's been so long that he doesn't know the real him anymore. There's no fixing that kind of deficiency, but P'riat's not a dead fish. He's merely conflicted, and he likes order in his life. To most people, he's polite, courteous, respectful. You treat him well, and he'll treat you well. Simper and try to get on his good side, and he'll hold you to it, grind you down into the dirt like the lesser person that you are. Loyalty is rewarded, if it's honest and true, but two facedness gets the person just what they expect and fear from P'riat. And for those few who can work their way into his life enough for him to trust them, P'riat can serve as a pillar of strength and dependability in their lives, rewarding devotion with the same given back twice fold. All he wants is honesty in people.

History: P'riat's past is a relatively quiet one. He was raised in High Reaches Weyr, the by product of a flight. He saw his father often enough to aspire to be a rider some day, and make his family proud, but his mother was the one who had the most hand in his upbringing. She was very controlling, factoring into his life much more than she should have, and perhaps that left a mark on him, or perhaps his trust issues stem from any number of bad relationships that most people experience when they're young.

It was obvious that Pariat was going to become a candidate, and while he had dabbled with the idea of becoming a Harper, that had been a fleeting fancy that he'd never told anyone about. It was a good choice, because the third year that he stood, he impressed Bronze. All of those disappointing hatchings had been worth it, waiting for the *smartest* Bronze of them all to pick him. And of course Iberith was smart -- he'd gone straight to P'riat.

P'riat's love affair with Iberith has been a lasting one. His Bronze has been the best thing that ever happened to him, and has continued to be. Being a rider, the physical and mental demands, are rewarding for P'riat. But where most riders are devoted to their dragons, P'riat has been at times psychotically concerned with Iberith. His first thread score, gained during the first fall of the pass, inspired the thread-scorched P'riat to seriously beat a dragon healer for letting his Iberith suffer while he treated the jagged score that marred his back leg. After that, P'riat's reputation at the Weyr rose, and in the 13 years that followed, P'riat has grown tired of the whispers behind his back by the younger, lower ranks.

After a long and interesting time at Fort Weyr, including a tumultuous stint as weyrleader, breaking a weyrwoman's wrist, and repeated breaking and entering events, P'riat decided to retire to the peaceful southern weyr of Arolos.

Information about P'riat's dragon

Dragon Name: Iberith

Colour: Bronze

Age: 36

Wing (Weyrling Group): Wind-dance Fury

Appearance: There are brassy bronzes and rich bronze colors and aged, dirty greenish bronze casts. Any metal smith knows that, knows the variations of the color, but where by Faranth a murky dull shade of Bronze like Iberith could come from, no-one knows. Most smiths would mutter about tempering heats too low, and that might be what explained Iberith. Maybe he wasn't kept warm enough on the hatching sands, but there's a gleam to his hide, over the murky bronze, that makes it impossible for anyone to doubt his color. Where thread has marred his hide, five times in his over 13 years of flying it, a lighter, cleaner shade of Bronze marks the well-kept hide. The most noticeable of those is the scarring on his back leg, and another along the trailing edge of his left wing.

Personality: If Iberith had been going to be anything other than a Bronze when the egg as laid, sheer force of will made him Bronze. He is arrogant, but in a paternalistic way that leads him towards attempting to mentor younger dragons because they *need* to know what's best for them. If P'riat were more personable, he would have made a remarkable dragon for training weyrling's dragonets. As it is, his natural curiosity still leads him into mentoring roles.

Weyr of Origin: High Reaches

Abilites and weaknesses: His right back leg is weak from the thread score that almost bit down to the bone, and his size is unremarkable for a bronze, lending him neither speed or agility. What Iberith does have on his side is intelligence, and enough of a sense of forethought to keep track of more than just the thread immediately in front of him during a fall.

All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are
copyrightę Anne McCaffrey 1967,2005, all rights reserved, and used by permission of the
author.

The Dragonriders of Pern« is registered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, by
Anne McCaffrey, used here with permission. Use or reproduction without a license is
strictly prohibited.